SG Choice #15 — Dormant Video Game Franchises

Two SG choices ago, we discussed what Nintendo franchises we would like to see revitalized. Today, we decided to look at non-Nintendo franchises. What dormant video game franchises would you like to see brought back? Let us know in the comments!

Ristar:
Ristar is one of my favorite games of all time. The game is so colorful, and the platforming is top-notch. It’s very fun, without it being overtly difficult and the game has a lot of charm put into it. Sega has used Ristar from time to time, but they need to bring my favorite yellow star back in full force. I’d really like to see a new platformer game starring Ristar. I was pleased when I found out I could play as Ristar in Super Smash Bros. Crusade.Banjo-Kazooie:I am sure I will not be the only one to have Banjo-Kazooie as my pick but this series just needs to come back. I can appreciate them trying something different with Nuts & Bolts but what Banjo really needs is return to the glory of the Nintendo 64 games. I grew up with these titles and so they have a very big place in my heart. The characters, the story and the platforming were all some of the best out there and I know that if Rare gave it another chance they could recapture the magic once more. Most 3D platformers nowadays can only be found with Nintendo and the Indie scene. Yooka-Laylee looks to be the perfect successor to Banjo but i have to admit I will always miss that bear and bird. it has been so long since the last true platformer that they do not need to greatly innovate or change up the formula. Just releasing a new game in HD with new worlds and missions all centered around what made the old games great is all I would need.

Crash Bandicoot:The orange marsupial was a major selling point for the original PlayStation, so seeing it’s last release being some shoddy mobile racing game is sad. The creature-jacking formula from the Radical era might not have been the best, but at least it was functional. Even today, the original trilogy(and Crash Team Racing) are still games I tend to revisit and ones I hold dear. We’ve seen some retro revivals succeed in this day and age, so I hope Crash himself gets the treatment soon. Heck, I’ll go as far as to say that ANY reference to the character would do until a new game. Sucks that he wasn’t in PlayStation All-Stars.

Conker’s Bad Fur Day:Considering Nantendo listed Banjo-Kazooie, (and I certainly agree with it!) I decided to go a different way and choose Banjo’s foul mouthed friend Conker for my pick. My reasoning really boils down to the fact that in my personal opinion, there are 4 great Banjo-Kazooie games out there, a spin off, and numerous other opportunities to play as the Bear and Bird in games like Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing and Diddy Kong Racer. Yes, I just said that Nuts and Bolts is a great game, and I’ll fight anyone who disagrees. Banjo-Kazooie games will at the very least live on through other means, we have Playtonic to thank for that.

Conker on the other hand really only has an appearance in Diddy Kong Racing, and his own game (Conker’s Pocket Tales is… Not great). The less we speak about Project Spark the better. Conker’s Bad Fur Day is an all time favorite game of mine. It featured invigorating gameplay that consistently kept itself fresh by changing mechanics completely, loveable characters, awesome environments and that beautiful Rare charm. Plus it has a squirrel pushing balls of poo around and a sunflower with a rockin’ rack.

Let us know in the comments what series you would like to see make a comeback.

PushDustIn is the founder and administrator of Source Gaming. Being obsessed with the history and development of games isn’t easy. Building a reputation on his research, translations, and article write ups, PushDustIn fully encapsulates the meaning of a 'data-miner'. PushDustIn has studied Japanese for over six years, and has lived in Japan for over four. The name PushDustIn comes from a garbage can in Osaka (Push Dust In). He lives with a very spoiled cat named Kuma.

BUBBLE. BOBBLE. Hands down my favorite co-op game on the NES (and its GBA remake was just as fun), this series has seen numerous sequels and remakes on Nintendo consoles, the most recent being Bubble Bobble Plus in 2009 for WiiWare. I’m also learning that just last year, a new Bubble Bobble game has been released for mobile platforms (the videos I’ve seen of it are in Korean, so I could not tell you what’s going on in them), so technically the series *is* still running, but it’s been so long since there’s been a game that didn’t feel like a remake. The last one I played was Bubble Bobble Revolution, a game plagued by a terrible glitch on release which prevented most of the game from even being played, but I was lucky enough to get my copy after the fixed version was made. Reviews for the series have been rocky since, which is a shame because at least in Revolution, the gameplay itself was fine, as far as I remember it anyway. The gameplay of this series is so unique, and is only made more fun to play in co-op. Heck, it was a pipe dream of mine before Smash 4’s release that Bub and Bob would replace the Ice Climbers as representatives of co-op NES games, and there have certainly been more Bubble Bobble games than Ice Climbers game, whether or not you count remakes and ports (no hate on the Ice Climbers, it was just an idea that kept floating around in my head during the speculations days). But that’s besides the point, I’d just love to see more of my favorite co-op game again.

Am I the only one who’s been cracking up when I saw Bubsy’s picture on the title and nobody was even mentioning about him? (lol)

I may have talked about this before, but my choice of game that I wanna see coming back is CyberConnect 2’s legendary Tail Concerto. Maybe not much people know this game as it may haven’t been that popular back then, but for those who are furry lovers like me, then this game was the masterpiece for them, even it was CyberConnect 2’s very first game to create before .hack series. Sure its all about an anthromorphed police dog chasing after the cat pirates using a Ride Armor-ish machine, which may sound generic and typical at the same time, but the story line was gorgeous with fantastic musics and fully recorded voices by some famous anime voice actors, like Dragon Ball Z’s beloved villain Frieza’s Japanese actor Ryusei Nakao. Although the controlling are difficult such as diving sideways to avoid attacks, the gameplay and world designs resembles with Mega Man Legends series, and if you like those games, then I recommend playing this game too. The game does look short as the world doesn’t look large enough with few stages, but I couldn’t blame it because it was the 64 bit era, there weren’t much data memory to make the world larger to play it longer. But the stages are breath taking with many cliffs and traps to avoid, and there are secret pictures to collect for fun. Characters are great with various personalities and its easy to love them, while they all made a return to Solatorobo as special guest characters, and Little Tail Story as special costumes. It has been 17 years since it’s release, and the company actually celebrated the 16th anniversary last year, showing a live game play through Nico Nico Douga, and even releasing a special art book with full of first drafts and fan comics, including a special novel of it’s sequel. I still remember how beautiful the story and music was, and how funny and adorable the characters were too, and if there was a remake or a sequel for it, I do wish to have it on a Nintendo platform (maybe NX?) than a Playstation platform with HD graphics. It has been last year since the CyberConnect 2 staffs celebrated the 16th anniversary of the game, so I do think they’ll plan something for that game in the future.